WHAT’S an actor to do when they can’t shake a role they’ve been associated with for decades? If you’re Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld’s Elaine), you win awards playing a manipulative, foul-mouthed politician on political satire Veep.
If you’re Matt LeBlanc – who will forever be known as Friends’ Joey ‘‘how you doin’?’’ Tribbiani – you take the plunge and mercilessly take the piss out of yourself, your famous character and your relative lack of success since.
LeBlanc plays himself – albeit a (hopefully) dumbed down, fame-hungry version of himself – in Episodes, a smart, sharp co-production between US network Showtime and the BBC. The show’s pedigree is blue-chip – Episodes was created by Friends co-creator David Crane and Mad About You co-producer Jeffrey Lane.
The Golden Globe-winning sitcom, which just finished its second season abroad, is screening in double episodes here. Tamsin Greig (Black Books) and Stephen Mangan (Green Wing) play married pair Beverley and Sean Lincoln, writers and creators of credible BAFTA-winning series Lyman’s Boys. Persuaded to move to Hollywood to remake their series, the couple is horrified to find out what they’ve let themselves in for.
First on the chopping block is the show’s star Julian Bullard (‘‘too English,’’ explains network boss Merc (John Pankow), replaced by down-on-his-luck LeBlanc, conscious that his post-Friends star is waning and in desperate need of a hit. Out, too, is their concept – instead of an aged headmaster dealing with his unruly students, LeBlanc is recast as a high school hockey coach and the show renamed Pucks!
Given some of the terrible American remakes – I’m still scarred by Hugh Jackman’s Blackpool remake Viva Laughlin, cancelled after just two episodes – it’s not that far-fetched a concept. The Lincolns are fish out of water – demure, cultured Brits thrust into a world of fake tans, fast cars and paparazzi. Greig and Mangan have great chemistry, but it’s LeBlanc who shines with his array of crass yet oddly charming one-liners and willingness to send himself up.
There are similarities between Episodes and Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s Extras (especially in LeBlanc’s gross exaggeration of himself); both shows explore celebrity status, ego and the TV industry. The satire in Episodes isn’t too deep – we already know that TV stations care about ratings – but coupled with three leads we want to care about, it’s a winning formula. The show-within-a-show Pucks! is predictably terrible, but Episodes is definitely not. Can Matt LeBlanc ever shake Joey? I don’t know, but ‘‘Matt LeBlanc’’ may end up being an even more memorable character.
Nine,Tuesday, 9pm.
